Used to have a blast tearing around the backroads and mountains on sportbikes. Problem was, I liked to go too fast.
Got away with it for years, then decided to hang up my sportbike hat, and in 2016, bought a 2016 WRX.
Not as much fun as an R1 on Deal’s Gap, but still a hoot, and a lot more practical. And safer!
But the WRX honestly wasn’t that much fun around town. While it was very comfortable, and had plenty of legroom for me (I’m 6’2”), decent sized back seat, and great utility with the 2” hidden hitch receiver I installed and used to carry bicycles, it was a bit annoying to drive unless you were flat-out on a mountain road. It had rev hang programmed into the ECU (to reduce emissions), which made it a bit tough to drive smoothly (it was a manual), and suffered from heat soak in the summer. It had an under hood intercooler instead of an FMIC, and felt like it lost 40 HP with the air conditioning running on a hot day.
All that said, occasionally, I’d take a whole day and drive out to East Tennessee and hit Deals Gap, and immediately when I got onto a great road, I’d remember why I bought the car!
That is…until the brake rotors warped! Which was another big problem with the car - it was severely under-braked from the factory, for its weight and the speeds it was capable of generating.
But, all in all, I really, really liked the car. It felt like it had almost unlimited grip in the corners, and balance was excellent.
But eventually, in 2019, I got engaged, and decided to let the car go. The timing was a shame, as values went way up on them in 2020 & 2021.
No big deal, though, as, before we got married, back in 2018, the wife bought a new 2018 Civic Hatchback 6MT with the 1.5T engine. Great car. Not near the horsepower or suspension or handling of the WRX, but still fun. And a KTuner upped torque and HP significantly. Honestly, to the point where it would slip the clutch if you forgot and got into boost in too high of a gear at too low of an RPM.
But then, in Dec. 2020, when she was 8 mos pregnant with our first, some moron rear-ended her and totaled the car.
And that’s when we ended up getting our 2021 4Runner.
So, now, 5 years have gone by, and the wife and I both have really missed having a light, fun, turbocharged, stickshift sport compact car.
Was really excited when the new 2022 WRX was announced, but then really let down by the reality of the car, which was…heavier, slower, and uglier, with…a whopping 3 more horsepower, and zero extra foot pounds of torque to show for an increase of nearly half a liter of displacement.
And even more utilitarian-looking than ever
And no STi.
So, of course, I’d been hearing about Hyundai’s new top of the line “N” model, the Elantra N.
And in every review I read or watched, they just absolutely raved about how much fun the car was to drive, with some drivers even preferring the Elantra N to the actual top dogs in the class - the CTR, Corolla GR, and Golf R!
The funny part is that the Elantra N actually competes more directly with the CSI, GTI, and WRX because of its price point.
But its performance is more closely aligned with the Golf R, Corolla GR, and CTR.
Well, the as I researched the car and how much performance it has for the $$$, and how many features it has, the more I decided that I was going to get one.
The fact that it has a HUGE backseat with tons of leg room, and a very large trunk, actually makes it a great family car.
I actually needed something that I could throw a few car seats in, because my Tacoma is just an extended cab. Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it, anyway!
What’s funny is that I’ve only been able to briefly drive it down the street because of time constraints (I actually bought the car from a dealership out of Tuscumbia, which is about 2 1/2 hour drive from me, and the salesman actually delivered it to my house last night). But I could tell immediately, that this was going to be a very, very fun car to drive.
What sucks is that I am off for the next five days, but we are going out of town (in the Odyssey!). LOL.
I did share just a couple of pictures last night, but they’re not very good quality. I will post up some more when I can. Including the interior.
Oh, and it’s dirty. I told the dealership not to wash it, because I’ve seen dealership “detail guys“ screw up the finish on a brand new car. Of course, the finish on this is not perfect. Already has some swirls in it. But, that can be fixed.
I also forgot to tell them not to put a dealership sticker on the back, and man, this one is horrible. A freaking white billboard.
Good thing that can be removed too.
View attachment 231081View attachment 231082View attachment 231083
